Within the first two starting days the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 9 stop at the "PokerStars LIVE Macau at City of Dreams", an overall field of 493 entries has been created. After eight 60-minute levels, only 188 hopefuls remain with the top 59 spots being paid at least HK$43,600 whereas the winner on Sunday walks home with a payday of HK$2,525,000.
Another eight levels are scheduled for Day 2 and the action gets underway in about half an hour from now at 14:00 local time with level 13 at blinds 600-1,200 and a running ante of 100. When bagging and tagging takes place around 22:30, the money might be reached already or is just a few eliminations away.
Leading the field of the survivors is Day 1b top dog Jia Liang with 198,200, who jumped into the top position in the last level of play. He is followed by the Day 1a leaders Zhifeng Yao (174,700) and XiaoHua Fu (172,000). Other notables with above-average stacks include Chane Kampanatsanyakorn (133,800), Nicolas Cardyn (101,500) and Guiseppe Reina (66,200) whereas none of the Team PokerStars Pros made it through Day 1. Steve O'Dwyer (50,900), Sunny Jung (43,400), Lester Edoc (41,100), Winfred Yu (29,000) and Henrik Tollefsen (17,800) are still in contention as well.
Join the PokerNews live reporting team for another exciting day at the tables and also make sure to use the hashtag #APPTMacau for all social media updates.
It must have been a very painful day at the tables for Chane Kampanatsanyakorn and he just shipped in his last 2,600 from under the gun. He received three callers including Wai Leong Chan in the small blind and the flop was checked through.
Chan then bet the turn and the river to get called by the player from one seat over only. Chan turned over his monster hand for a full house while the next player showed his . Kampanatsanyakorn's stood no chance and he headed to the rail.
In a battle of the blinds, Lester Edoc got his stack of approximately 60,000 chips in preflop with the after a raising war with Nicolas Cardyn and the Frenchman snap-called with .
There was no help on a dry board of and Cardyn is now among the biggest stacks.
We arrived at Table 6 just as a massive pot was about to develop.
On a flop of Xiaohua Fu checked his option from under the gun. The player in the hijack then committed his last 9,100 into the pot as the decision fell on Manu Herewini Austin in the cut off. He thought for a moment before raising it up to 35,000. Fu didn't take long to announce all in, an amount close to 300,000 in chips. Austin snap called for over 100,000 in chips and the cards were tabled.
Austin:
Fu:
Opponent:
Austin had flopped bottom set and was in great shape against his two opponents who had a pair each. However, the turn brought the sending Fu to the lead with a higher set. The on the river guaranteed Fu the monster pot, sending him to over 500,000 in chips, after eliminating two players.
The seat of Jia Liang was vacated and we were about to ask Daniel Lee what happened when the American got value out of turned trips with on a board of . The valuebet of Lee was called and he moved up to 230,000 chips. His recent profit also came off the elimination of Jia Liang as well.
"He shoved 56k from under the gun plus one and I called with nines," the American said. "He had off suit".
With the pot over 25,000 and the flop reading , both Steve O’Dwyer and Yoshiro Nagata checked the action over to the player on the button. He bet out 9,000 and was called by O’Dwyer before Nagata opted to bump it up to 18,000 in chips. The original raiser thought for a minute before folding his hand then O’Dwyer called.
The fell on the turn and O’Dwyer checked. Nagata instantly reached for chips and splashed out a tower of 5,000-denomination chips totalling 70,000. O’Dwyer looked over at the bet before moving all in for 88,000. Nagata wasn't impressed but made the additional call for 18,000 before both players tabled their cards.
O’Dwyer:
Nagata:
O’Dwyer had turned the nut flush and ended up raking in the pot after the completed the board. With that pot O’Dwyer moves up to 229,500 in chips. Nagata drops down to 45,000.
The action started with the player in the hijack raising to 7,000. Huidong Gu was in the cut off and bumped it up to 14,000 before the decision fell on Justin Chan on the big blind. He moved all in for his remaining 33,000 which was enough to scare off the original raiser. But not Gu who made the quick call.
Chan:
Gu:
Chan was in great shape to double up until the board ran out . Gu had spiked an ace on the flop to take down the pot leaving the tournament with one elimination from the money.
There were two all in and a call and table four was the first to determine the bubble boy while table 1 provided a split pot with versus .
It was Yat Wai Chen open-shoved from the small blind and Zheng Wang called in the big blind with his short stack of only a couple of big blinds. Zhang held the while Chen flipped over the inferior . The rail erupted on the flop and neither the turn nor river could save Zhang anymore.
All remaining players are now in the money and guaranteed at least HK$43,600.
With around 58,000 chips in the pot on a flop of , Weiyi Zhang led from the small blind for 27,000 and Steve O'Dwyer moved all in for another 96,500 on top. Zhang had to give it a lot of thought but eventually made the call and they tabled their cards:
O'Dwyer: for a straight and flush draw
Zhang:
Both the turn and the river bricked and the Chinese rocketed up to 340,000 in chips while O'Dwyer headed out of the tournament area. The Irish-American may very well be back tomorrow for the HK$100,000 High Roller as of 17:00 local time.
Sihai Jiang open-shoved from under the gun for what looked like 55,000 chips and Xiaohua Fu flat-called on the button. Kai Yat Fam then glanced at his cards and reshoved out of the big blind to isolate the short stack. Fu snap-called and that is always a very bad sign.
Jiang:
Fam:
Fu:
There was no help on the board and Fu jumped to incredible 740,000 in chips.
flop was checked through.
turn and the 
river to get called by the player from one seat over only. Chan turned over his monster hand 
for a full house while the next player showed his 
. Kampanatsanyakorn's 
stood no chance and he headed to the rail.
after a raising war with Nicolas Cardyn and the Frenchman snap-called with 
.
Xiaohua Fu checked his option from under the gun. The player in the hijack then committed his last 9,100 into the pot as the decision fell on Manu Herewini Austin in the cut off. He thought for a moment before raising it up to 35,000. Fu didn't take long to announce all in, an amount close to 300,000 in chips. Austin snap called for over 100,000 in chips and the cards were tabled. 
on the river guaranteed Fu the monster pot, sending him to over 500,000 in chips, after eliminating two players.
. The valuebet of Lee was called and he moved up to 230,000 chips. His recent profit also came off the elimination of Jia Liang as well.
off suit".
fell on the turn and O’Dwyer checked. Nagata instantly reached for chips and splashed out a tower of 5,000-denomination chips totalling 70,000. O’Dwyer looked over at the bet before moving all in for 88,000. Nagata wasn't impressed but made the additional call for 18,000 before both players tabled their cards.
versus 
, Weiyi Zhang led from the small blind for 27,000 and Steve O'Dwyer moved all in for another 96,500 on top. Zhang had to give it a lot of thought but eventually made the call and they tabled their cards:
